Hidden Beneath
by Kate Lewis
Summary: A story without the typical happy ending. Edward leaves Bella and stays away for 75 years. He thinks he's finally managed to give her the full life she deserved. Then, Alice sees something that forces Edward to remember old hurts and return to Forks.
1. Chapter 1: A Look at the Future

**Hidden Beneath**

**Author's Note:**

My very first fanfiction and very first published piece of work. So... don't be too harsh. Hehe, I was just tired of reading all the happy endings and wanted something a little more... depressingly realistic with a hint of a satisfied new beginning.

Oh, and also. It's in third person... Don't kill me Twilight fans! I've just never really liked first person. And, although I could stand it in Twilight, I've never been able to write it even half decently. Maybe I'll try something later on. But, for now you must suffer through the horrors of third person! Bwahah!

**Disclaimer:**

I don't own Twilight or any of the characters in the book. They're all Stephenie Meyer's wonderful creations.

**Chapter One: A Look at the Future**

_A red umbrella._

Alice Cullen's eyes were squeezed tightly together in concentration. She had picked something up today. Something that would change the future of everyone in the Cullen's house. Her eyebrows were drawn tightly together on her impossibly pale forehead, wisps of her short, black hair were tickling her cold skin but she didn't notice. Her whole mind was bent towards this distant future, this one path that could be broken if any one of a thousand things were changed.

_A red umbrella. A raining morning. A freshly painted sign on the side of the road. __**Forks Secondary.**_

Her topaz eyes snapped open. She changed the focus of her mind from the future to the present and used every ounce of mental strength she had to call Edward. She had to tell him what she had seen. She had seen the impossible.

_Bella,_ she thought, frowning in concern. This could be turn out very good or very, very bad.

--

The shock of Alice's call caused Edward's head to whip in the direction of the house. He ignored the low buzz of Emmet and Jasper's thoughts and caught the soft word Alice had whispered in her mind. _Bella. _He wasn't sure whether to harden himself to avoid feeling the anguish he had locked inside himself for so long or to let himself remember and hope that Alice had a future that made up for the torturous past.

Jasper felt the confusion that Edward had felt when he heard Alice calling out. He looked over at Emmet, then back to Edward, stepping closer. Suddenly, a flood of emotion raced through the vampire standing beside him. Jasper attempted to slow the cascade of feeling pounding through Edward's mind but he had no effect on the strength of the memories that were recalled with the perfect clarity only a vampire could manage. There were flashes of love and happiness, perfect bliss and dazzling contentment quickly overtaken by memories of hurt and self-inflicted heartbreak.

Edward's moment of indecision had allowed his memories to pour out. He tried to fight them off but he had less of an effect than Jasper. Endless flashes of Bella's delighted smile, her moments of complete klutziness that always made him laugh, her smell, her hair, her eyes. They flitted through his mind at speed he was having trouble keeping up with. Memories of her anger and horror when he told her she was leaving. That one memory of her lying awake in her bed after three days without him appearing to her. He had watched her shake with silent sobs and twist her hands in her blanket in fury and despair. He had barely resisted his need to hold her and comfort her by telling himself that it would be better for her in the end. She would have a life, she would keep her soul. He had left her behind. Pain twisted his still heart into a knot that ached with a cold so profound he clutched at his stoney chest. His breathing stopped, all thoughts of continuing the habit that wasn't needed forgotten.

Emmet and Jasper stepped closer to Edward. "We need to get him back to the house," Jasper said, "I can't get through to him at all, it's too strong... too strong for me." His face was drawn tightly across his skull, the strain of keeping his own feelings in check with Edward next to him was challenging enough.

"Edward," Emmet leaned in close and spoke to the paralyzed vampire. Edward flinched at the sound and took a shuddering breath that might have relaxed a terrified human, but did nothing to help the cold, broken heart of the monster standing in the woods that day. "Let's go home, whatever s bothering you can be fixed there."

Edward nodded dully and moved off in a slight daze. Jasper and Emmet ran at his sides, slightly behind. The pace he set was slow by their standard but they didn't want to say anything to their wounded brother.

_Bella. How could I have left? Alice saw Bella... Alice saw Bella._ Edward's mind turned from his painful memories to the hopeful present. He could find her. She could be out there, not alive... but still there for him to hold in his cold arms. '

_75 years. It's been 75 years..._

**Author's Note**

Well, I hope you liked the first chapter. Please give me some advice on what I could do better but don't forget to throw in some nice stuff, hehe. I'm terribly worried this all came out wrong and I'm thinking I should never have posted this... Ahhh!

If you're lucky and I feel a little more confident, the next chapter should be coming soon. So please review!

Embarrassed yet hopeful,

Kate Lewis.


	2. Chapter 2: Finding the Right Path

**Hidden Beneath**

**Author's Note:**

Oh my goodness! I didn't expect to get so many 'hits' on my first story. Thanks so much to all those that added 'Hidden Beneath' to their favourite story or story alert lists and even more thanks to those that reviewed!

I just wanted to make sure that everyone knows this story is not like most "What if Edward never came back..." fanfictions. It's got some surprises coming up. But, before I can write the heartbreaking chapters, I need to get done with the rather boring introduction ones. So, bear with me, once this gets going it'll be great!

Please review, I'd like to know if I'm doing anything wrong. My knowledge of Twlight is limited to... well, Twlight, the first book. So if something doesn't line up right, please point it out. Thanks so much!

**Disclaimer:**

Once again, I don't own Twlight, or Edward, or Bella, or Jasper, or... anyone. All were created by Stephenie Meyers!

**Chapter Two: Finding the Right Path**

"We're going with you!" an exasperated Emmet argued. "There is no way I'm letting you go back there by yourself. Alice never saw a whole face... Just some hair and a chin!"

"He is right Edward." _You're too hopeful... what if this turns out to be something else? There is no guarantee that this person in Alice's mind is Bella. _Japer's eyes were on Edward as he reflected on his brother's feelings. He felt the spike of despair and anger as Edward received the second part of Jasper's thoughts.

Carlisle started to echo what Jasper had said in his mind, but was distracted when Alice spoke up. "You can't go with him."

Edward, who had been sitting as still as a statue on one of the couches since he had stated his plan, leaned forward, his eyes suddenly focused once more on Alice.

"If we all go, we attract unwanted attention from the wolves still 'patrolling' Forks." Alice cooly raised a hand to forestall Emmet, who had stood up to give a new suggestion. "If Emmet and Edward go, he doesn't find what he's looking for at all. Something goes wrong on the way up and you can't continue. In fact, if any of us pair up with Edward, something goes wrong... Well, anyone except myself."

Jasper sucked in a breath of irritation. The whole room seemed tense. Esme and Rosalie stood near the door to the living room, both frowning with displeasure. Esme because she was worried about what this might do to Edward, Rosalie because she was annoyed that Bella could still have this much of an effect on the family.Alice looked focused and determined, seated calmly on a large chair. Jasper was seated on the back of the chair, his hand on Alice's shoulder. Edward, on the couch, was flanked by Emmet, who was now standing almost right in front of Edward, and Carlisle, still seated at the far left of the couch.

Edward caught the thoughts of his family members regarding Alice's plan to follow him to Forks. Jasper wasn't a huge fan, but most of the others saw it as a sound idea. Alice could warn him of what was coming, where he would need to be. If there was going to be heartbreak, she could bring Edward home. His on thoughts on Alice being with him were mixed. Yes, she could help with finding Bella should the future shift but, he wasn't sure if he really wanted her there with him when he found the red umbrella and it's owner.

Alice continued, "I can help him find her. I can warn him of things that could go wrong." She flicked her gaze to Edward, "I can help you, Edward. I'm coming with you."

The plan the room full of vampires had come up with was a simple one. Not that their situation had called for anything extravagant. They were extremely isolated in their new home, living miles from anyone in the mountainous forests of British Columbia, Canada. Still, with the assortment of cars the family had collected over the years, getting to Forks would not take long at all. Alice and Edward were going to take the Mercedes SLR, the car with the darkest tinted windows and enough horsepower to reach speeds of 330 km/h. They would leave the next evening and hopefully get the Forks in two days, at the most. Alice and Jasper left to go for a quick hunt, Rosalie and Emmett vanished into the night together, Carlisle retreated to his office and Rosalie went outside to care for her garden. Edward remained in the living room alone for a long time, his eyes closed in concentration, too focused to be affected by the chance that he could be meeting Bella so soon.

Out in the woods, Alice suddenly halted in her steps, her eyes unfocused as her concentrated on her future.

"What is it?" Jasper asked, returning to her side. They had been out for most of the night, not really hunting as much as enjoying each others company in the moonlight.

Alice frowned, her eyes squeezed shut. "I can't find Edward... he's changing everything, Jasper."

Edward felt drained. Ever since he had stood up from his seat on the couch he had been concentrating on changing his future. He went up to his room and decided to wear a brown sweater. No, a white shirt underneath a dark jacket. Yes, the white shirt, with a pair of dark wash jeans. No, maybe he should wear his lighter jeans.

By the time he had left the house, he had changed his mind enough times to wear Alice out if she was trying to follow him. He wasn't sure just how much she could take, so he kept going. He changed his mind about which car he was taking, which CD to put in, how far to adjust his seat. He couldn't decide if he was going to turn left and take the short route or right to enjoy the scenery. Should he travel the speed limit or go as fast as the car could go? Maybe he should drive on the wrong side of the road for the whole trip. Then again, maybe not. He switched lanes every minute, he flicked his turning signals on and off. He almost took off-ramps multiple times. He wasn't even sure how much of an effect his smaller decisions were making, but he had to keep trying.

"He's definitely heading to Forks, I can follow him to the highway... But he keeps vanishing, fading out and then returning in a slightly different location. I don't know how long I can keep this up. Especially if he keeps doing it when he gets to Forks, there's a lot more you can do out of a car..."

Carlisle threw a worried look at the smallest vampire, "Maybe we should let him go, Alice. He thinks he has to do this alone."

"But he shouldn't be there by himself! Something is going to go wrong, I just can't find exactly what that something is with him doing this to me!" Alice cried out, worried and exasperated about Edward.

"You won't be able to catch up with him for a while, Alice. Even when you get to Forks, finding him would be too challenging, I think, even for you."

"I need to go, I should be able to get there before whatever is going to happen happens... Maybe I won't be able to find him. But, I might be able to find _her_."

**Author's Note:**

Alright, there's the second rather boring introductory chapter. It will get better next time! Longer and more exciting. And that twist you have all been waiting for might just get squeezed into chapter three as well!

Please review. Let me know my chapters are all too short, or that my Alice is horrible, or that it all rocks your socks and that my perfect writing leaves nothing to be desired ( I wish... ).

I shall try to finish the next suspenseful chapter soon!

'Til next time, Kate.

P.S. Sorry if there's some typos in this one, I really have to go to work, but wanted to get something up before I left. )


	3. Chapter 3: The Fall

**Hidden Beneath**

**Author's Note:**

Thanks again to everyone who reviewed or added the story to their alert or favourite list. I can't believe that there are over 300 hits! I'm running short on time to write, so I apologize for not replying to me amazing reviewers for taking the time to write. Hopefully when I have a bit more time to myself, I will be able to thank all of you personally! ) Thanks again!

Chapter Three is done! This is where the interesting stuff begins

**Disclaimer:**

Twilight and all it's characters belong to Stephenie Meyers, not me.

**Chapter Three: The Fall**

Edward stood at the side of the road, still as stone. The door to the Mercedes was open, left in the driveway that was barely distinguishable from the weeds and cracked pavement. His golden eyes had dimmed to a dull ochre and were full of sadness as they took in the abandoned home before him. He conjured up an image of the home as he recalled it so many years ago. The crumbled structure before him could barely compare to the warm home where he had watched Bella all those nights. He examined the ruin before him with a critical eye. A tree had fallen through the roof he decided that the constant rain had rotted the rest of the wooden beams and caused the house to collapse on itself.

He sighed with frustration. She wasn't here. He took a deep breath and turned back to his car. Forks was not a large place, he could find her shortly. He would just have to try another place. It would be very unlikely for her to stay at this house her whole life. _And afterlife... _he thought grimly.

--

It took longer to search Forks than Edward would have thought possible. He wouldn't go near La Push until he had exhausted all this other options. It might help him hide from Alice but he certainly didn't want the wolves coming out to impede his search. It would be better to avoid that whole area the whole time he was here. He went into town with the hood of his jacket pulled up against the cold wind that promised rain later on and against the looks of all the people of Forks that might still have a vague idea of who Edward Cullen was. It was an interesting experience, walking down a street he could recall perfectly and see faces that reminded him of people he had known. Maybe some of them were the children of his old classmates at Forks Secondary.

He decided to check a phonebook first, with luck Bella may have kept her name, or part of her name. She might be under Bella Smith, Sanders or Summers instead of Swan... He would just have to check the whole thing for anyone with the name Bella or Isabella. The pay phone outside the library had a relatively intact yellow pages. He flipped through it at inhuman speeds. She wasn't in there. Well, she could just be back for a visit. Perhaps she was staying at a hotel? He climbed back into the Mercedes and drove off to check.

Half an hour later he was completely fed up with humans. The man behind the desk of Forks' one hotel was remarkable at veiling his thoughts from Edward. Mostly because the whole time Edward was asking him about a Bella Swan, he was reliving football plays. The man did inform him that he hadn't been the owner for long and he hadn't seen anyone come in to fit Edward's description.

"Believe me, son," he had said, "I would remember a girl like that."

Edward had left before the man's imagination had time to create a 'Bella' complete with a skimpy cheerleader's outfit to accompany his football fantasies.

He continued to roam around the town in the morning, checking random homes once the occupants had left for any sign of Bella. He found nothing convincing. Thoroughly exasperated, he moved to scout out the homes farther from town. Maybe she had decided to live at the old Cullen's home. It was a possibility at least.

--

"Damn it!" Edward cursed, not something he did very often. The home was undisturbed. The large white sheets that had been spread over the furniture when the Cullen's had switched locations were still in place. Nothing had been touched. There were no fresh smells and no footprints going to the house that he could see. He left his car in the drive way and ran along the road as the dark clouds that threatened with rain grew more and more menacing in the sky. He was making his way along a back path that many of the school kids took home from school. It was a few hours after school would be left out, so he passed no one as he walked at human speed towards the school.

He tipped his head back suddenly, catching a new scent in the air. The temperature dropped a few degrees and a curtain of light raindrops fell from the clouds. The drops themselves were misty and almost inconsistent, blowing around on the light breezes and flying every which way. But, there were enough of them to soak the surface of the dirt path within moments and staining the shoulders of Edward's jacket a deep black. He let his head fall slowly, his eyes closed, loving the way the ground smelled with the fresh layer of water covering it. He slowly opened his eyes and focused ahead, where the path curved around a thick pine tree. A flash of red caught his eye and without thinking he moved into the trees and circled around so that he would come out behind the figure. He stepped out of the woods

And there she was, walking alone in the rain. Her back was to him as she moved away, her long dark hair swaying beneath the red umbrella that Alice had seen. He probed gently at her mind and received none of her thoughts. _Bella... _he whispered in his mind, his still heart aching to be near to her. With the speed only a vampire can manage, he was three steps away from her back. He was so deadly silent, she didn't notice his proximity.

"Bella," he breathed, his voice as soft as the light rain that fell around them.

She jumped with fright and spun around, the damp ends of her hair swung around her shoulders and slapped gently at her cheek. Edward took a step towards her his eyes alight with wonder and delight. Then, a crushing wall of sensation struck out at him and he staggered back, unable to believe what he was sensing. She still smelt of human blood. _Not possible, _he thought, _not possible, but so... intoxicating._ He fought viciously with himself. It had been 75 years since he had smelt blood like this. All the immunity he had built up, all his power over himself had faded from those years spent in isolation. She seemed paralysed in his presence, trembling without control, as if she could read his thoughts and knew what he was thinking to do with her. Her face was stained red as she took in his beauty and power, her lips moved but no sound could make it out into the air.

His desire was written on his face, his beautiful eyes were taking her in with a predatory precision. His mouth was curled up in what could have been a smile, if only his teeth weren't bared so menacingly. He was dazzling her. Only this time, it wasn't out of love and a desire to hold her forever. He was using his vampiric gifts to hold her in his power until he was ready to strike.

_Oh, God... Oh, Bella._ He tried to hold on to something, anything to stop him from breaking her skin and releasing that smell into the air. Before he had managed to find reasons. There had been other people there, witnesses. Now, she was alone in the rain. There had been the life and cover that his family had worked so hard to maintain. Now, they were living miles and miles away... everyone thought they were dead. He had wanted to hold out to prevent himself from becoming the monster he hated. He clung to that one need with a rabid passion. He couldn't lose control.

The umbrella suddenly fell from the trembling hands of his captive. Her knees were weakening under the power of his stare. Edward pulled his eyes away from her with a heroic effort. He could resist this. The umbrella forgotten, the impossible creature before him found some strength within herself and tipped her head back to look at his eyes.

A soft wind picked up then and, as if the elements themselves were out to get Edward when he was weakest, swirled the delicate raindrops around the two of them. Soft droplets of moisture collided with her skin and ran down her face, her jaw line, and onto her now exposed neck. Edward shuddered and his eyes snapped back to hers with full force. It was as if the rain was creating explosions of sound, light and smell on her skin. She became so much more in the rain. So much more beautiful and so much more desirable. Edward groaned and tipped his head back in the wild ecstasy of her scent. He couldn't hold himself off, not for love, not to prevent a monster from emerging. She was alone in the rain and her smell was powerful enough to create stars in his perfect vision.

Back under the intense gaze of those golden eyes, the knees of the prey buckled and she stumbled forward. The movement drove everything from Edward's mind. With lightning speed and reflexes her caught her before she had shifted an inch and before he really knew what his body was doing, his teeth had pierced the skin over the rapidly pulsing vein in her neck.

It was like drinking pleasure, swimming in light and darkness. Her delicious scent was amplified ten times by the rain and her taste was one hundred times better than that utterly perfect smell had been. Even while he filled himself with her blood, a part of him was screaming for him to stop. He couldn't make himself take his lips from her skin. He held her close to him as she jerked feebly, draining her of every last drop, needing her blood more he thought he needed anything else.

He let himself fall to the saturated earth with the drained corpse in his arms. The warm blush that had coloured her cheeks was gone. She was utterly pale and cold. He looked down at her face as his golden eyes clouded over with red mist, glowing sinisterly in the dark light of the rain. With an enhanced version of the clarity that always followed a feed, he gazed at her face and jerked in surprise. Her lifeless eyes stared back at him, unfocused and with irises that were a pale, washed out blue.

_Edward! _A horrified voice shrieked in his mind, _What have you done?!_

**Author's Note:**

Duh duh duhhh...

Just a few quick things to keep in mind. Edward's search was focused on finding a vampire Bella because it would be very unlikely that she would be alive after 75 years otherwise. She'd be well over 90. Do remember that Bella wouldn't be able to live there continually as a vampire, which is why Edward was looking for her under other names in the phonebook.

I really am sorry about the middle section. I didn't like it much but I couldn't think of a way to fix it without delaying the chapter longer than I thought would be fair.

Do I have any of you wanting to find my house in order to burn it down? Hehe...

Hope you enjoyed the twist and the added suspense at the end. Perhaps some of you can think ahead to where this might be going. And I hope I'm not going to drive any of you insane.

I'm looking forward to posting the next chapter to help you guys out a little, or possibly mess around witt your brains a little more.

'Til next time,

3 Kate.


	4. Chapter 4: The End

Author's Note

After ages and ages, and way too many years, I was convinced to finish this by the lovely Maggie Summers. Inspired by both her and the amazing 'Wishes and Words and Etcetera', I finally wrote an ending. It wasn't the ending I originally imagined, but there it is. At least, it is an ending.

Of course, I own nothing relating to Twilight.

...

Edward jerked away from the drained corpse in his arms at Alice's voice. Red pooled into his eyes, consuming the golden hue he had maintained for so many years. The strength of human blood burned in his still veins. He growled at Alice, his sister and confidant for over a hundred years. She was hidden from his sight but not his senses. He knew she was just a moment away if he ran with all his speed.

He didn't want her to see him like this. The fierce rumble in his throat was produced once again, and he felt her thoughts turn to fear as she pictured his intentions in his mind's eye. He wanted to kill again, to kill others with the insatiable rage of a newborn, and to kill himself. To end the life of his damned body that had failed his true love so completely. He didn't care anymore.

_Edward..._

If she spoke to him again, he would attack; it wasn't an uncertainty anymore. Alice was alone, she had to be. She wouldn't force his hand to violence. He felt her presence dim. She was likely to call the rest of the family to aid her in her quest to save Edward from his self-destructive path. He didn't have a lot of time.

He stared mournfully at the young girl in his arms. Too young to be married, to have children, to have lived. Everything had been stolen from her, stolen by him. He felt sorrow creeping into his soulless existence, but he didn't want to mourn. The feeling of abject dismay sank deeper and festered into rage. He hated this existence. Bella should never have loved him. He should have left the first day. It was all his fault. His hands, unchecked by his wandering mind, crushed the forearm of the delicate beauty in his arms. It gave beneath his fingers without a struggle.

No blood was spilt; he had pulled every drop of flower-scented fluid from her veins. The bones turned to powder within the sheath of her skin. Edward forced his hands to unclench, releasing the delicate limb trapped under his grip. He didn't want to destroy this body, he couldn't destroy his Bella. He reigned in his strength and delicately brushed the sodden locks of hair from the pale face. The limp body shifted in his arms and he caught sight of her icy blue eyes. An image of Bella sprung into his mind, superimposing itself on the face in his arms.

Bella had brown eyes. Brown eyes that softened when she laughed and shot daggers when she argued. The blue he was confronted with confounded him, then opened the door in his mind to a scenario he hadn't even considered, but that explained everything. This wasn't Bella.

This must be her daughter... no, her granddaughter, even. Edward felt more despair press on his mind. He had not only failed his love, he had stolen her legacy from her as well. A wail of pain at a frequency only his kind could hear tore through the rain-laced air.

As the echoes died, the horror of what he had done crashed into Edward with the strength of a pack of werewolves. It pierced his mind, destroying every happy memory and every moment he had cherished with Bella. He couldn't handle the weight of it. His mind shrank and glazed over, he shut down, not breathing, not thinking, not being.

Edward blinked and looked around; he was alone in the rain. No, not alone, he was holding something, holding someone. "My dearest, Renesmee," he crooned to the young girl in his arms, "what are you doing out here? Your mother would be horrified to know that you're not in your dress yet. Don't you remember where we are supposed to be right now?" He paused, watching cold lips that did not move with an intensity that could not be matched by mortals. "That's right, love," he spoke after a pause, red eyes perceiving what could never be, "we're supposed to be at the church. It's the day your mother and I get married!"

Rain streamed over the marble of the tombstones, a dismal grey veiling the sky and obscuring the sun. Edward was digging.

A tombstone, slanting alarmingly towards the hole being torn into the earth at inhuman speeds, was barely legible in the half-light of the rain.

Isabella Marie Swan

September 13, 1988 - January 01, 2019

Mother and Friend

May whatever pain that plagued you in life be removed from you in your eternal sleep,

May you finally rest peacefully.

Edward, apparently, didn't notice the marker. "You would think that one of us would remember to fix this door. It's always getting stuck," he muttered to the doll-like body discarded next to his excavation site. The wooden lid of a coffin was suddenly exposed and he unearthed the entire wooden box shortly after and pried the top from the shallow box as though it really was a door.

"There you are my love, and looking as beautiful as the day I met you. I wish we could have been married earlier, that you had let me love you fully only when we were joined as one, but you always win, don't you? And we're just as happy today as we would have been then, only now we have a beautiful daughter to join us this joyous day!"

He reached down and pulled out a body lighter than the one he had carted from the quiet road of her death. Bella, her hair still clinging in places to her decomposing scalp, looked horrifyingly ghoulish. The clothes she was buried in were hardly holding up well, rotting off her decaying figure. However, Edward clearly was imagining her as she had been: young and pale and flawless to him. She was dressed in a vintage gown - Alice had no doubt had a hand in its creation - with the ring he had always imagined giving her upon her finger, a blush staining her cheeks at his compliments.

"I know, I know," spoke the vampire in the graveyard, "its bad luck to see the bride on her wedding day. But I found our daughter wandering without a care in the world..." He paused, then raised his voice and shouted -although still at a speed no human could hear- "Are you done getting changed, Renesmee? ... Good, let us be off! We shouldn't keep the minister waiting."

The 'church' turned out to be the Cullen's old living room. The white sheets covering the unused furniture, dusty in the absence of the family, were repurposed into a wrap for Bella; a designer gown fit for a princess. There was no priest. However, Edward had found a scarf somewhere and had it wrapped around his head. 'Renesmee' was slumped on the floor to his left. Bella was curled at his feet, the side of her face that he could see was rotted out so that most of her teeth could be seen through her cheek, but he looked as her as though her lips were whole and rosy and her beauty intact. In a proper Englishman's voice, accent and all, Edward began to speak.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today..."

Sliding the scarf to his shoulders, Edward slid forward a step, bending to pick Bella up from the ground and gaze into the empty sockets of her eyes while he spoke his vows, reverting back to his natural accent with ease. Bella's voice rang in his mind as clearly as it had 75 years previous, returning his vows with love and passion and devotion. Renesmee cried when she handed the rings to the couple. So did Bella, when the imagined band of white gold was slid onto her finger, which in this fantasy was more than just bones and cartilage, barely holding together after the passage of so many years. Edward had never been happier than when the minister declared him wed to his love, and pronounced that he kiss the bride. He had his cold lips to the half-smile of Bella's corpse when he felt a fluttering in his mind that was too familiar. The corpse of his bride slid to the floor as his hands moved to his head.

He cradled his skull, not wanting to think about his family, and why they were there. Knowing on some level that if he remembered the motives of Alice, he would remember a pain too great for one body to contain.

"Go away!" he screamed to the walls around him.

_Brother_, came the voice of Jasper, _let me help you with this hurt. I can help ease your pain._

He felt a familiar presence in his mind, sliding over his delirium. Instead of embracing it, he raged against it, letting the strength of the blood he had so recently enjoyed permeate his being once more. He shook off Jasper's influence and turned to his other family on the floor, now his forever. The scarf slid off his shoulders and onto the floor, but he didn't bother wondering where the priest had run off to. He could hear the thoughts of his other family as they tried in vain to find a way to counteract the futures Alice was seeing, each more terrible then the last.

"I can't do it. I won't do it," he muttered, gathering the two bodies to himself, their heads against his chest. "I won't let them take you away from me."

Although clearly delusional, Edward knew that if he let his sibling's in, his fantasy would be gone and the life he had crafted for himself in a few short hours would vanish and he would be left without his love, and without their beautiful daughter.

"No, they will never take us from this moment. We will live forever in this right now, in the moment we were married. We were so happy, so happy then. And with Renesmee here, we have all we need for eternity."

Alice's thoughts turned black with fear, and he could sense that it wouldn't be long before they rushed into the house.

He rubbed his hands furiously against the floor, smoke rising as the friction grew. At inhuman speeds, it didn't take long for sparks to emerge. The sheets that covered the furniture and wrapped Bella's body made a good catalyst for the fire. He rose from his position with the two bodies and smashed the coffee table into shreds for kindling that burned fast and bright. Alice was screaming for his brothers to save him. Moving with a speed granted by the fresh human blood, Edward added more fuel to the fire. Then, he began to tear at himself. He ripped off a leg with savage swiftness and tossed it into the heart of the blaze. It flared up with even greater intensity. His left arm followed and he hopped into the fire as Emmet and Jasper burst in through the walls, not bothering to move to the door. Edward found the burning bodies of Bella and his imagined daughter, what her name was in her own life, he had never found out. As his flesh began to ignite, he tore off his other leg, collapsing beside the two he loved the most within his fantasy.

He clutched at the shoulder of Bella as his arm charred into nothingness. "We'll be together forever now, love. Forever with our daughter..."

Jasper ran at the fire, but was driven back as Edward's body ignited fully, creating a wave of heat that spawned flames on nearby sheets covering wooden furniture. Alice was sobbing outside as reality caught up to the most horrifying future she had seen.

Edward came back to himself somewhere before the end, but as the fire devoured his limbs, burned his throat and ate away his lungs; he couldn't scream or beg for help. He could only lie there, clothed in flaming skin and agony, with what was left of his ruined hand clutching the rotting corpse of a woman he had failed to the uttermost. Despite his intentions, he died utterly alone, utterly afraid, and utterly damned.


End file.
